The continuum of strategic philanthropy: Rationalizing the context for philanthropy in business and society

In order to further enhance our understanding of strategic philanthropy within business and society, our paper proceeds as follows. First, we discuss the process driving evolutionary change in philanthropy. Next, we discuss the actual development of strategic philanthropy. This includes a brief US history of salient events in corporate giving, with attention paid to the regulatory, business, and social contexts related to corporate giving. Finally, in the discussion section, we present a modified continuum of corporate giving, based on previous research and our analysis, extending from a focus on bettering society, on the one hand - to that of advancing the firm's interests, on the other.